Who’s behind
WMAIThe publisher and managing editor
is Scott Baltic, communications officer
of the Chicago Swordplay Guild, a graduate
of the master’s degree program in
magazines at Northwestern University’s
Medill School of Journalism and a magazine
editor for nearly 18 years.

WMAI’s
editorial boardMore importantly, we are building
an international editorial advisory
board of respected and experienced WMA
instructors. Here’s who we have
so far.

Born in 1970, Jörg Bellinghausen has had an interest in history and martial arts his entire life. Having been trained in saber fencing by a former German National team coach and having studied karate under one of the instructors of GSG9, the elite counter-terrorism unit of the German Federal Police, he turned to historical Western martial arts in 1991, with emphasis on the German fencing masters from the 14th to the 16th century. His favorite weapons are the longsword and the dagger. He was certified as an instructor for Historical Swordsmanship by the Bavarian Fencing Federation in early 2007.

Jörg has taught seminars in Germany and abroad and has been networking with many researcher-practitioners around the globe for a number of years. He was a founding member of Die Freifechter, and since 2002 he has been a member of Ochs-Historische Kampfkünste, where he runs the training group near Bonn, Germany's former capital.

Sean Hayes is a fencing
master trained in classical Italian
fencing pedagogy under Dr. William M.
Gaugler at the San
Jose State University Fencing Masters
Program. He has studied Western
martial arts since the early 1990s and
is also a well-known and respected researcher,
teacher and practitioner of the systems
of Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33 and
of Fiore dei Liberi's "Fior di Battaglia." Hayes
is a full-time teacher and practitioner
of Western martial arts, teaching classical
Italian fencing and medieval Italian
martial arts for the University of Oregon
and privately through his own school,
the Northwest
Academy of Arms, in Eugene, Ore.

He is the author of the article "The
Importance of Skill Progressions in
Studying Western Martial Arts" in the
book "Teaching & Interpreting Historical
Swordsmanship," published by Chivalry
Bookshelf. Hayes has taught seminars
in the United States and Europe and
has presented original research papers
at the International Congress on Medieval
Studies and the University of Chicago.

Born in Switzerland and raised in Italy, Tom
Leoni is an internationally
recognized Western martial arts researcher,
teacher and author specializing in
the Italian styles of the 1500s and
1600s, including the halberd and other
polearms. As the leading researcher
of the rapier system of Salvator Fabris,
he published the first English translation
of Fabris’ 1606 treatise “Scienza
d’Arme,” which was issued
as “The Art of Dueling” by Chivalry
Bookshelf. Tom lives in Alexandria,
Va., where he runs the historical
martial arts group he founded, the Order
of the Seven Hearts. By day, he
is a writer for a D.C.-based company.

Gregory Mele has
pursued reconstructing European swordsmanship
since the mid-1980s. In 1999, he co-founded
the Chicago
Swordplay Guild, and later that
same year, he organized and hosted the
first Western Martial Arts Workshop
as an effort to promote these arts among
practitioners throughout North America.
Mele co-authored, with Luca Porzio, "Arte
Gladiatoria Dimicandi: The 15th Century
Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi" (Chivalry
Bookshelf, 2003), was a contributor
to Spada: An Anthology of Swordsmanship
(Chivalry
Bookshelf, 2003) and has presented
several papers at the Kalamazoo Medieval
Conference. His current interests and
research center on Italian martial traditions
from the 14th to mid-16th centuries,
particularly the dei Liberi tradition,
Bolognese staff-weapon play and the
schermo of Angelo Viggiani.

A veteran of the martial and performing
arts, New Zealander Tony Wolf has
worked as a martial arts instructor,
professional wrestler and fight director/stunt
co-ordinator. Between 1988 and 1994,
he developed his original Wolf System
of performance/combat exercises, which
has been taught to actors, martial artists,
stunt performers and stage combat specialists
throughout the world.

Tony's fight direction and action design
have been featured in more than 200
feature film, television, theatre, opera
and ballet productions. Between 1998
and 2000, he served as the “fighting
styles designer” for Peter Jackson’s “Lord
of the Rings” movie trilogy. Tony
regularly teaches a range of master
classes and seminars for martial arts
associations, universities, stunt teams,
acting academies and performance conferences
throughout New Zealand, Australia, the
USA, Canada and Europe.

Tony also serves as the editor for
the EJMAS
Journal of Manly Arts, a scholarly
online journal focusing on the martial
arts and combat sports of the Victorian
and Edwardian eras, and in 2005 he edited
the Bartitsu
Compendium, a complete history of
E.W. Barton-Wright's "New Art of
Self Defence." He is an Acknowledged
Instructor with the Historical Maritime
Combat Association and also serves on
the advisory board of the American Heritage
Fighting Arts Association.